ACCIDENTS AND MALADIES 233 



acquainted with the symptoms, say that the injury is one which 

 must have arisen from a blow received by the hawk ; but I 

 have known it come on suddenly at a time when the sufferer 

 could hardly have come by such an accident without its being 

 observed. The following is a prescription given by Turbervile 

 for curing the malady : — " Master Cassian (a Greek falconer of 

 Rhodes) sayeth that yee must take Sage, Myntes, and Pela- 

 mountaine, and boyle them all togyther in a new earthen pot 

 full of good wyne, and when they bee well sodden, take the potte 

 and set it uppon hotte imbers as close stopped as maye bee. 

 Then make a rounde hole of the bygnesse of an Apple in the 

 clothe that your potte is stopped withal for the steam to issue 

 out at. Which done, take your Hawke upon your fiste and holde 

 out hir hurte wing handsomely a great whyle over the hole, that 

 it may take the fume whiche steameth up out of the potte. 

 Afterwarde lette hir be well dryed by keeping hir warme by 

 the fire, for if she should catche sodaine cold upon it, it would 

 becomme woorse than it was before. Use her thus twyce a daye 

 for three or fourc dayes togyther, and shee shall bee recovered." 



The beak and nares of a hawk should be kept clean, and a 

 good falconer will, after she has finished her meal, wipe off any 

 remnants of food or blood which may remain attached to the 

 upper mandible. Unless this is done — sometimes, indeed, in 

 spite of its being done — the nostrils and upper parts of the 

 cere, where the feathers begin, may become infested with acari, 

 or mites, which, unless destroyed, will eat into the horn and 

 the flesh and cause great annoyance, if not actual sores and 

 inflamed ulcers. Hawks which are in low condition are par- 

 ticularly subject to this pest ; but at all times a sharp look-out 

 should be kept, so as to detect the presence of the minute 

 parasites, which may be seen running about somewhere near the 

 nostrils. Fortunately it is easy to get rid of them. A solution 

 of tobacco soaked in water should be made, and mixed with 

 brandy or some strong spirit, and then applied with a small 

 brush to the parts visited by the parasites. After a few applica- 

 tions they will be found to have disappeared. 



Hawks will often get corns on their feet if allowed to stand 

 constantly on hard blocks or perches. It is strange enough that 

 there should be found any falconers who have so little thought 

 for the comfort of their charges that they will use such resting- 

 places. The screen-perch, at all events, which is kept per- 

 manently indoors, should have a padding of some kind — cloth, 

 baize, or soft leather — underneath the canvas or sacking upon 



